How do the Sheep Come Home for the Winter in Iceland?

Icelandic sheep are super interesting! They were dropped off in Iceland about 1,000 years ago by Vikings.

There are no predators, so the sheep are turned out into the mountains for the summer months to forage for themselves. Every fall, the shepherds and their families bring them home in a communal effort called Rettir.

Here’s a beautiful video of the process. Watch for the sheep at the front of the flocks, leading the way. These are called Leadersheep, a line of Icelandic sheep that are a little bit more intelligent and guided by their instinct than the others. You will also notice the beautiful and sturdy Icelandic ponies that the shepherds are riding.

Do Vegetables Need Fertilizer?

Standing at the Fall Fair one year next to my first-prize-winning tomatoes, I heard someone say, “There’s no way those were grown organically, they don’t get that big unless you fertilize them.” 

Not so!  Not only were my tomatoes only fed compost, but a lot of the other prize-winning vegetables that day were grown the same way on other farms.  They’re not always labelled as such, but they have been quietly grown in the way that many people have always grown them.  On top of that, vegetables grown well, in good soil and fed compost, often taste a lot better than those grown quickly with fertilizer.  Taste is not evaluated at most fairs yet, just appearance and size, but I hope it might be in the future. 

Food grown traditionally in soil and compost might be better for you too. Some modern studies that have analyzed organically grown vegetables compared to those “conventionally” grown have found higher trace minerals, which makes sense as they were fed more trace minerals from the compost than those just fed fertilizer.  Perhaps that is part of their good taste as well.

And growing vegetables without fertilizer is easy: even lawn care services in our area are moving away from fertilizers nowadays, and not just because they want to keep chemicals out of the water table.  In our area, they’ve found that it’s cheaper, less work, and works better to apply some alfalfa pellets to a lawn instead of fertilizer.  If it is applied once in a season, the lawn looks green and healthy well into the next season as the alfalfa composts, and pets and people can play on it continually.

We have the same experience with our vegetables – we apply compost at the start of the season, sometimes with a bit of lime or bonemeal (organic), and that’s it for the season.  Some of our neighbours really have this down to an art, and grow amazing, delicious vegetables on a larger scale with compost that is purchased.

In your home garden, if you don’t have homemade compost (I’ll post in the future about how to make this stuff well) you can always purchase some at a local garden centre.  It will cost less than some fertilizer, be healthier for you and your pets to be around, and feed your plants for the whole season. 

So, you are thinking, what about all of those other additives that I have read about that I need to feed my vegetables?  I would say that like anything, there are always ways to do things in a more precise way and to tweak systems so they work better.  Yes, a sprinkling of wood ash over your beet and rhubarb rows will make them grow better, but if you don’t have any or forget, I can assure you that some nice beets and rhubarb will grow anyway in your good soil and compost. 

Keeping things simple to start will ensure that you don’t feel intimidated and throw in the towel.  Healthy plants just need lots of light, the right amount of water and heat, and good, well-aerated soil with nutrients to eat.  That’s all.  Therefore with a bit of sunlight, water, and some good compost mixed into the soil before you put the plants or seed in, you’ll be able to grow big, healthy vegetables.  And even better, they’ll taste great! 

(Fun fact: the Saanich Fair is the longest-running fall fair in North America!)

Basic Sheep Care 101: You’ve just bought a sheep, now what?

Congratulations!  You’ve taken the plunge and bought some sheep!  Sheep are one of the most rewarding farm animals as they can be very gregarious and can provide so many products and services for a farm – wool, milk, meat, field maintenance, brush and weed control, to name the most common.  Here in British Columbia, sheep were even used for a period as weed eaters for the silviculture industry. (more on that in a future post)

How to care for your sheep?

Sheep are easy, but they do require care.  Their main needs are:

  • Clean, dry shelter (don’t believe that “sheep carry their shelter on their backs” stuff)
  • Clean water – sheep, like you, will not drink dirty water unless they’re dying
  • Nutritious food
  • Shearing and foot trimming

If you provide these three things at all times, your animals will live long, healthy lives, and you will likely never need to call a vet. 

Shelter

Shelter for sheep comes in all sorts of sizes and shapes, from open-sided buildings to those that look like horse barns with stalls.  We use a repurposed greenhouse during the winter months for our sheep, and they love it.  What you use will depend on your circumstances. 

The main things to consider in providing shelter will be that it is dry, with lots of ventilation and light, and clean.  Most people provide straw bedding and either change it daily or put new layers of dry straw on regularly to keep the sheep warm and dry and healthy.

Clean Water

Clean water is the thing that is most commonly overlooked by sheep owners.  Sheep aren’t like chickens, dogs, or other animals that will drink out of a dirty puddle.  They seem to know instinctively that dirty water can infect them with parasites and bacteria, and will refuse to drink it.  Keeping their water clean will create some work for you, but it is worth it.

You will want to encourage your sheep to drink plenty of water.  Like humans and other mammals, drinking plenty of water keeps their bodies healthy.  We even place the salt and mineral feeder next to the water to encourage the sheep to consume plenty of both. 

Note: This is a poorly understood part of sheep husbandry – I have even seen notes in more than one book claiming that sheep don’t need to have water provided as they can get it from the grass they eat.  It is true that they won’t drink much if the grass is wet and green in the spring, but you should provide it anyway, at all times.  As soon as the temperature rises, or the grass gets a bit drier, or their stool gets a bit loose, or many other circumstances arise, they need a drink no matter what, and it needs to be there for them. 

Nutritious Food

Sheep are herbivores and most people know they eat grass.  But they also eat leaves, twigs, branches, and many other plants.  When given a lot of space to roam, they will browse through the different zones taking a bit of everything that they need and making a balanced diet for themselves.  On modern small farms, we provide:

  • Good quality hay
  • Small quantities of grain or textured feed
  • Salt and minerals

Generally, the higher the quality of the hay you provide, the less they will waste, and the healthier your animals will be.  For our area, we feed each sheep daily:

  • about ½ lb of textured sheep feed,
  •  5 lbs of good quality hay, and
  • offer free-choice cobalt iodized salt, both loose and in a block, and a specialized sheep mineral mix

Watch for my future post about what type of feeders to use!

Foot Trimming and Shearing

Like many animals, your sheep will need to have their hooves trimmed.  Ours sheep have their feet trimmed twice a year when they are sheared, it’s an additional service that our shearer offers.  If you neglect to trim your sheep’s feet when they need it, they could be vulnerable to foot conditions, some of which are very nasty, so it’s very important to trim them regularly.

Shearing is necessary either once a year or twice a year, depending on the breed.  Most breeds just require it once a year, usually just before summer, but some breeds like Icelandics are sheared twice a year, in spring and fall.  More on shearing in a future post!